Bangalore, Oct 9: After two days of intense search, personnel from various government agencies on Wednesday fished out the body of nine-year-old Geetha Lakshmi from Madiwala Lake, almost 7.5 km from Bilekahalli on Bannerghatta Road where she fell into an open drain on Monday night and was washed away.
After dredging the 7.5 kmlong storm water drain in vain, the team began looking for the body in the highly contaminated Madiwala Lake from Wednesday morning.
Nearly 20 personnel from Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), National Disaster Response Force, Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services and the Civil Defence Team began in boats took part in the search.
The search team found a badly decomposed and swollen body entrapped in the water hyacinths around 2:15 pm on Wednesday. The body was identified based on the victim's height and the clothes she was wearing.
Initially taken to Victoria Hospital for autopsy, the body was shifted to KIMS in the absence of doctors at the former. Later, the body was handed over to the grandparents of the girl.
The body was then taken to Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, from where the girl hailed, for the last rites.
Lakshmi had come to Bangalore to celebrate Dasara with her relatives. Around 9 pm on Monday, she and her aunt were returning home after visiting a friend. Both were walking on the pavement constructed over a drain.
As repair works were on, some slabs of the pavement had been removed earlier, leaving the drain open in places.
It was raining heavily and the entire road and the pavements were submerged. The girl slipped and fell into the drain which was full of rainwater.
Mayor N Shanthakumari, who visited the spot during the search operation on Wednesday, expressed shock over the incident. She blasted the officials for their failure and warned them that such incidents showed their inability to serve people for which they were appointed.
The mayor said she will be meeting the chief minister to urge him to remove irresponsible officers from the BBMP. Later, speaking to reporters, Shanthakumari said she will discuss with the City ministers and local MLAs to prevent such tragic incidents in future.
She added that the zonal-level joint commissioners of the BBMP alone cannot look after the entire zone. The assistant engineers should be made accountable for the works at ward level.
She said the assistant engineers should leave the spot only after covering the shoulder drains with slab stones soon after the de-silting is over.
œWe have reserved a fund of Rs 20 lakh for the ward level works, which is not utilised properly. This results in tragic incidents like the one took place at Bilekahalli, said the mayor.
Also Read: 9-year-old girl washed away in Bangalore drain amidst heavy rain
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